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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23629099">Reunion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/XantunsiaRiveresiana/pseuds/XantunsiaRiveresiana'>XantunsiaRiveresiana</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gilberti Riveresiana Chronicles [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XIV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Assassins &amp; Hitmen, Child Soldiers, Gen, Male Miqo'te (Final Fantasy XIV), Mass Death, Pirates, Slave Trade, Slavery, Torture</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:27:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,416</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23629099</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/XantunsiaRiveresiana/pseuds/XantunsiaRiveresiana</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Family reunited. Work left undone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gilberti Riveresiana Chronicles [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700908</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was like watching the world continue after dying.<br/>My plan had succeeded. I saw it with my own eyes. The look in mother's eyes when she cut me down. The sight of what a beautiful monster she had become. It was all I wanted. All I needed. I could face this death I had accepted long ago without fear.</p><p>And yet I didn't die.</p><p>After my body fell into the sea from mother's blow, I awoke on something called a "ship". The other people there had apparently stopped me from dying. I don't think my mind accepted that, that these kinds of wounds which I had seen kill dozens of us on the island, could be stopped. There had to be some kind of cost to this, a price to pay. As if to validate my disbelief, the second thing I noticed after the fact that my wounds were closed was that I was bound in chains.</p><p>It's a strange thing, the mind dying before the body. A sense of self, opinions and feelings, they die with the mind. But knowledge, reflexes, sensations, they do not. They told me I was “a slave". It apparently meant I had to do whatever they told me. That I would be "rented out" to people for a task and returned, like how I used to borrow Vigilis' tools for traps and hunts. They tried to hurt me to make that point, to show me what happened if I disobeyed, but they didn't keep it up for long. Even if my body was in pain, my mind wasn't able to react to it. Nevertheless, when given an order I reacted reflexively, as if they were her orders on a hunt.<br/>These traits of mine apparently made me bad for social jobs, so I would get sent out on manual labor jobs most often. I would often be returned with high praise, like, complimenting me as if they liked my craftsmanship. </p><p>There was a lot of information to hear on these jobs, knowledge to record. This place I ended up was called "The Far East '' it seemed. The people I kept being returned to were called "The Five Dragons Cartel ''. The people who spoke seemed to talk of them with the same regard the clan spoke of monsters. These people? Monsters? I didn't see it.<br/>Upon completing a task I would always be returned to the ship and then put in some kind of lower chamber called the barracks. There were others like me there, slaves, but all very much alive body and soul. Whether big and bestial in size and demeanor, or meek and cowering, the pain of living was vividly present on all of them. Except one boy, a "miqo'te" as they seemed to call us. He hid it much better than the rest.</p><p>When I first was placed down there I noticed him attempting to tell stories to the other slaves. The bigger ones would scare him off, while the meek ones would plead to be left alone. That's probably why he gravitated towards me, corpse-like as I was. I never responded in anyway, but he would always go on about stories from his land. Fantastical tales of Five Headed Monsters and the 8 immortals who defeated them. The story seems to go that was the origin of his country and he would continue on with it's history from there. They were always rambling dumps of information, probably only memorable because I had nothing else to focus on when he told me, but whenever he did he would have a wide grin on his face. That bright smile in the midst of great hardship seemed almost familiar.</p><p>I’m not sure why I remember that.</p><p>The cycle of being sent out for jobs and returning to the boy's stories continued until one of our owners took an interest in me. Something about my physicality seemed to make them think it would be good to train me. He simply handed me some sharp metal and told me to attack him. I'd say the lesson started out miserably because I threw the sword at him as my first action and went to attack with my claws, instinct kicking in. Unfortunately for me that had been clipped since coming here, and my former way of fighting was left unusable. After that however things went smoothly. "Do as I do" he said, doing technique after technique with a blade. I copied him to the best of my ability, which appeared to be an impressive feat, perhaps even a scary one from his reactions to me.</p><p>Before long, I was sent on new jobs. No longer just moving heavy objects or moving long distances, but jobs called "assassinations" where I was told to kill. The smile left the boys face when he learned this; one of the few times I ever saw such a thing happen.<br/>He told me how those jobs were very dangerous, that I might not come back from them. This seemed to cause him pain of some kind. It was odd, as the boy had more than enough reason to display his pain as it was. He wasn't the best at jobs from the look of it, and would be taken to the owners before being returned to the barracks, more battered than before. He would even be returned from jobs battered, which strangely would make the owners happy and get them more "money" than usual. Despite all of that, the most pain I ever saw him reveal was when he heard this news about me. </p><p>Why? What was it called... worry?<br/>It seemed... familiar.<br/>But that's not important.</p><p>The cycle continued from that point on but was changed. The jobs were longer. The preparations for hunting a human were more extensive than I would have thought, but they taught me a lot about them in their own right over the many assassins. Weaknesses, strengths, fears, pleasures, they all varied a bit from mark to mark, but not enough to matter. Besides a change to the environment and some lies having to be told here or there, it was no different than hunting beasts. Like the beasts, I don't even remember how many of them I hunted. It must have been a lot though as the owners were very happy with the "profit" I brought in talking about "charging" more for me. They all seemed very pleased with themselves, except for the one who trained me, he seemed almost... nervous.</p><p>After every excursion, the boy seemed more and more happy to see me come back, and would barrage me with stories more than usual, many of which I had heard before. They seemed different though, when he told them those times. Before it seemed more practiced, but this time there was a genuine warmth to them.</p><p>It made me feel.... something. <br/>Which was uncomfortable for a corpse like me.<br/>And it was also something else<br/>I don't remember. It didn’t matter.<br/>It would all change soon. After I saw her again.</p><p>The Five Dragons started doing business with some entity known as "The Garlean Empire" after the notoriety my jobs seemed to bring in. From what I had heard of them, they were the first thing these people regarded with fear that seemed to approach a true "Monster." We journeyed to some fortress of theirs, but in the course of our voyage, something had gone wrong. We approached their port to clear signs of combat and hostility. It looked like a largescale hunt. And then, from the distance out at sea, we saw that warzone disintegrate. A massive explosion left all in the surrounding area devastated in a circle of flames. Then, there, standing amongst the fires, The first real Monster I had seen in these 5 years. A mechanical behemoth towering over 8 people. I felt like I could just about feel my heart beat for the first time in these five years. Had it caused that explosion? If so, it was terrifyingly beautiful. The most beautiful monster I had seen since-</p><p>and then I noticed. The Behemoth was losing, losing to the people, losing to the "adventurer", as I heard them called, that was leading the charge. What person could possibly have become monstrous enough to match such a monster?</p><p>It was her.<br/>I was yalms away from the actual fight but I could tell. The way she moved, the way she roared, changed over these years, adapted, but adapted exactly how I'd expect her to adapt to this world.<br/>It felt like every heartbeat I had missed for five years hit me at once. I could barely keep myself standing, tears were streaming down my cold face and I spoke for the first time since I died.</p><p>"Mother...!"</p><p>As I watched the fight however, more keenly, more emotionally, I realized. Something was wrong. 5 years ago my plan should have turned her into a monster, a furious untamable terror on this land a ruler amongst beasts. She had that in her, that beautiful potential. But as she felled the mechanized giant and it's operator was ejected, she didnt go for the kill. Nor was she alone, seven others fought alongside her. Friends? Allies?! </p><p>No no no no NO!!</p><p>This was all wrong. As long as she had something left to lose,  someone that she had not lost yet, she would never truly reach her monstrous potential. I cursed the foolishness of it all. I cursed my own foolishness as well. Clearly I had underestimated her, thinking that I would unlock her potential back then. As she fought now was well beyond my childhood dreams, as was the entirety of this world outside our torturous little island. But I had seen the world, I had seen her. A new plan was needed to unleash the queen of monsters.<br/>"Oh what would you do without me mother...?"</p><p>I was stuck in my own world so I hadn't noticed. Apparently 3 guards had tried to tear me away from the boats edge and back into the barracks. They laid dead at my feet. I took a moment to process what must have happened. The first one likely grabbed me casually, given my reputation of being docile. I'd likely have flipped behind him and strangled him with my hand restraints. Breaking those with the sword he dropped, I would use that to cut down the other two who approached me so I could keep watching mother's hunt. Having finally snapped out of my own head, I looked upon my current situation. The entire force of guard we had, including the head guard who trained me, the majority of the slave body, and even the five dragons, albeit from a safe distance, had their attention turned to me on the deck of the ship.</p><p>I took in the situation, processed everything I learned about these beasts known as "man", thought about how best to go forward with my plan, with what's best for mother.<br/>I started my hunt.</p><p>I started with a tactic I from my old world, one I saw mother use often, and challenged the head guard to singles combat. He kept a strong face, but I had seen the fear in him before this incident even began. He talked a lot more as my offensive pushes gained ground, shouted words like "animal", "beast", <br/>"Monster".</p><p>That's how I knew he was finished. Revealing his fear of a false monster like me. He soon became nothing more than a cornered beast, biting off more than he could chew and then calling for the rest of the pack to save him. I'd seen his kind before in many forms, this is exactly what they looked like before they died.No one moved an inch to save him from me, in fact, the majority of them backed away. After I cut him down, the rest of the guards barely put up a fight. </p><p>The Five Dragons turned to the slaves to protect them, pleading to them, bribing them with promises of money and freedom. I used this to gauge them. I could easily tell from their faces alone. The arrogant smile of someone too stupid or strong willed to truly be brought to heel. The fearful gaze of a coward that couldn't be trusted to stay loyal to strength. I needed a middle ground. Strong enough, ambitious enough to follow power, but smart enough, fearful enough to bend to someone stronger. One by one I cut down the unsuitable faces. Only seven were left when my slaughter was finished. Seven slaves, eight counting me, that fit the criteria, and five dragons. I backed them to the edge of their boat. They were too measly, too cowardly to even jump and take their own lives. And the people of this land considered them monsters? <br/>Pathetic.<br/>Disrespectful!<br/>Disgusting!!<br/>That they would even be compared to such beauty!<br/>I hunted them slowly, unlike anything I had ever hunted. But in the end this wasn't a hunt. This was something else. Something I learned from them, anI made sure to copy them perfectly. The methods I had seen them use, the wounds they had put on that smiling face.</p><p>Smiling?<br/>Who?</p><p>The torture I was copying never resulted in death, so I hadnt an idea how to do it. In the end, I left them to the seven remaining slaves. Hours passed before the dragons finally died. And then those former slaves turned to me, expectantly.<br/>"Ah, what is one supposed to do here... a speech?" I thought to myself. And then I thought more. A memory came to me.<br/>"Brothers! Sisters! Our captors are slain by the eight of us! And in their place shall we rule their fallen empire eternally! As the Five Dragons fall, us Eight Immortals, The Anba Xian Cartel shall rise!!"<br/>There was a pause. And then they cheered with me. That speech though, where had I heard it? And why did it make me think of a smile?<br/>A smile...<br/>Thinking on that, not all the faces I cut down were arrogant or cowardly. There was one that was different.<br/>One that was smiling.<br/>Why did I cut down that one? What did I feel as I did so?<br/>I don't remember.<br/>But it doesn't matter.<br/>All that matters now is the plan<br/>All that matters now is changing Mother, <br/>changing Xantunsia, <br/>into the beautiful monster she deserves to be</p>
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